2 Colossians

This afternoon, having a bit more time than I did last week, I tracked down Theodor Zahn, may our Lord bless him forever. Before his (admittedly-bad) argument for the extra "Colos" origin, he had transcribed the Latin. It's a quick read:

1 Fratres, qui sub potestate domini sumus, mandatum dei custodire debemus.
2 Qui custodiunt precepta domini, abent vitam aeternam; et qui negant mandata eius, adquirunt ruinam et in hoc secunda morte.
3 Preceptum domini hoc est: Non periuraberis; non furtum faciis; non adulterabis; non falsum testimonium dices; non accipies munera contra veritatem nec per potestatem.
4 Qui habet potestatem et abnegat veritatem, abnegabitur illi regnum dei et conculcabitur in infernum. Ibi non egreditur bis.
5 Quomodo sumus fragiles et praevaricatores agentes peccatum!
6 Non per singolus dies penetemus, sed per singolus dies peccatum super peccatum facemus.
7 Ut sciates hoc, carissimi fratres, quia opera nostra ... scriptum est in hoc libro: in cummemoracione erit nobis in die iudicio.
8 Ibi nec testes, ibi nec pares, ibi nec per munera iudicabitur, quia non est melior, quam fides, veritas, castitas, ieiunius et elimosina, qui extingit omni peccata.
9 Et quod tibi non vis, alio non facias.
10 Stipola rignum dei et accepit Corona, quod est in Christo Jesu domino.

And now, Google's translation:

1 Brothers, who are under the authority of the Lord: we must keep the mandate of God.
2 Those who keep the precepts of the Lord have eternal life; and those who deny his mandate acquire ruin and by this the second death.
3 The Precept of the Lord is this: Thou shalt not swear; nor commit theft; nor commit adultery; nor bear false witness; nor accept gifts contrary to the truth nor by authority.
4 He who has power and denies the truth will be denied the kingdom of God and will be trampled into hell. He will not exit there again.
5 How fragile we are, transgressors doing sin!
6 We do not repent every day, but do sin upon sin every day.
7 That you may know this, dearest brothers, because our works ... are written in this book: they will be remembered for us on the day of judgment.
8 There are no witnesses, there are no equals, there will not be judged by gifts; because there is nothing better than faith, truth, chastity, fasting and almsgiving, which extinguishes all sins.
9 And what you do not want for yourself, do not do to another.
10 Stipola received the kingdom of God and the crown, which is in Christ Jesus the Lord.

Here we are back in the wonderful world of Christian paraenesis. Smells like... Laodiceans. I admit not quite figuring out vv. 5-6.

So: on to Zahn's notes. The first verses riff Romans 6:15-23. Paul there had argued that one must become God's slaves, to attain "eternal life"; those who don't, stay in sin to attain only death. Sub potestate nods to the centurion in Luke 7:8 (also Matthew 8:9); v. 4 reads like Luke's threat against Dives on account of his neglect of Lazarus. We are all assuming the Vulgate in supplying the Latin.

The next question, for Christians, is how to serve the Lord. This letter has the answer: to follow the Lord's "precepts" or "mandates". The NT Vulgate actually doesn't speak of precepts, but repeatedly notes mandates (John 13:34; 1 John 2:3, 5:3). These particular precepts, rather mandates, show up Romans 13:9.

[INTERJECT 9/15: This list of sin-expiating content resembles 2 Clement 16, more than 1 Peter 4:8.]

This homily addresses Christian potentates, to use another Latinate term, who had been taking bribes. The mention of adultery suggests the oldest treasure of womanhood. All this rules out Paul himself, whose followers were in little position to take such liberties, not even in Colossus. Rather: the author of the epistle sure thought that Paul spoke from Divine authority, and he didn't ascribe his parallels to Paul's pen. Did the author intend a pseudepigraph in Paul's name? We might never know this for certain; but recall that the ten lines here got into a lectionary.

Was Luke himself this homily's author? - Marcion?